Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Sharad Pawar has stressed on increased quality control measures to boost export of fish and fisheries products. Speaking at the Central Institute of Fisheries Education in Mumbai today, Mr. Pawar said, India has got vast fishery and aquaculture resources which need to be further explored and harnessed.

The Minister said, in the era of globalization, there is a need to meet quality criteria through sustainable and eco-friendly ways avoiding use of antibiotics and chemicals. He said there is an urgent need to raise well trained human resources on sanitary measures, hazard analysis and eco-friendly farming.

Mr. Pawar said, India today is the second largest producer of fish in the world after China. The fisheries sector has been growing at 6 per cent over the past five years. He added that apart from being a major foreign exchange earner, fisheries is the source of livelihood for over 14 million people.

Mr. Pawar also inaugurated new facilities at the Central Institute of Fisheries Education in Mumbai aimed at augmenting infrastructure to train students from India and other countries of Asia and Africa.